Note 306 — PART THE SECOND. (continued 2)

Also called El-Khaḍir. This mysterious person, whom the vulgar and some others regard as a prophet, and identify with Ilyás (Elias or Elijah), and whom some confound with St. George, was, according to the more approved opinion of the learned, a just man or saint, the Wezeer and counsellor of that equally doubtful personage Dhu-l-Ḳarneyn, whose story has already been related in this volume. El-Khiḍr is said to have drunk of the Fountain of Life, by virtue of which he still lives, and will live till the day of judgment. He is also said to appear frequently to Muslims in perplexity, and to be generally clad in green garments; whence, according to some, his name.—Sale states, in a note on this passage, that the Muslims usually confound El-Khiḍr with Phineas, as well as Elias and St. George, saying that his soul passed by a metempsychosis successively through all three; and he adds, that part of these fictions they took from the Jews, some of whom also fancy Phineas was Elias.